Electronic design automation tools can allow users to design and analyze electronic devices or systems prior to their manufacture. While some electronic design automation tools can be very powerful, the effectiveness of these electronic design automation tools often relies on tool usability and engineering knowledge of the designer. For example, when functionality of an electronic design automation tool is difficult to invoke or realize, many designers can be stifled during the development process, often leading them to spend many hours becoming accustom to the idiosyncrasies of the particular tool or to switch to a different tool altogether.
Even when an electronic design automation tool is easy to use, some aspects of electronic design rely on user engineering knowledge, such as determining how to build certain portions of their design, selecting design components and their associated parameters, interconnecting different portions of their design, or the like. This reliance on user engineering knowledge in the design process is exacerbated when developing electronic devices with components from multiple different engineering disciplines, for example, electronic devices that include a combination of analog and digital hardware components, embedded software code, electro-mechanical components, such as sensors and actuators, or the like. While an expert in all of these disciplines would no doubt be able to effectively design a multi-discipline electronic device, other users may have problems with specific areas of their designs for which they do not have a particular engineering expertise. In other words, the tradeoff for having a more thorough and powerful multi-discipline electronic design automation tool often comes at the cost of requiring a higher level of engineering acumen from its users in order to fully utilize its functionality. This often creates a headwind, slowing tool adoption and utilization, in favor of simpler, less precise tools.